Well Said!

Now laugh at this pain.
I have been diagnosed with hemorrhoids on my testicles!

James Mattison
Manager, Information Systems
Wide-Lite, Inc.
(512) 753-1234
[log in to unmask]

>>> "Emerson, Tom # El Monte" <[log in to unmask]> 08/22/00 05:40PM >>>
This afternoon, Al posted a couple of jokes that were, well, certainly adult
in nature, but (perhaps) juvenile (sophmorific?) in quality/content.  He has
been soundly flamed (in private, it appears) and has chosen to reflect the
resulting drivel back to the list for public exposure.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm neither appalled nor exuberant over the posts,
and I don't mean to defend nor persecute Al, but I thought it appropriate to
at least smooth the ruffled feathers of a few here before things escalate
beyond all measure of sanity.

Basically, I'd like to say, "get a grip folks -- this is HUMOR, not REAL
LIFE".  Unfortunately, unless I define what *I* believe "humor" to be, I
risk further offending those I'm trying to soothe (this is from another
thread on another list I belong to, where it has been pointed out that the
English language is so easily twisted and/or perverted that what *I* believe
a particular word to mean can be quite different than what others believe it
to mean)

So here is my observation on "what humor is": Humor is "someone else's
pain".

That's it in a nutshell -- before you hit 'reply' with more 'well, you're an
A$$ too' posts, stop to think about the ramifications of that statement.
What comedians make you laugh the hardest, and what jokes do they tell to
make you laugh that hard?  How often do those jokes tell the tale of someone
on the receiving end of physical or mental "pain"?  Most often, the jokes
told are self reflective of the comedian's past, perhaps embellished along
the way, but almost always cases where they themselves are the "butt" of the
joke (or if not themselves, a close family member or "their best friend")

Why do these jokes make you laugh?  The simplest explanation I can come up
with is above -- it's "someone else's" pain, not your own, so hearing the
joke makes you feel internally relieved because "the joke is not about me".
If the joke hits "too close to home", well, then the joke is often viewed as
"not funny", and perhaps even "not in good taste".

[of course, there is another class of jokes altogether known as "puns", or
"word plays", but what makes these jokes "funnier" is finding someone who
"doesn't get it", and therefore making you feel "smarter" than someone else
-- again, the joke derives it's pleasure from the fact that "someone else"
feels "pain", in this case, the "pain" of not appearing as "intelligent" as
yourself...]

Now, as to the jokes Al posted originally?  Take a moment to look at them in
a detached sort of way -- the "bible" jokes are all pretty much cases of
obscure and (hopefully) no-longer-enforced interpretations of passages [some
perhaps taken way out of context]  However, should those "passages" be
enforced in today's society, almost all of them would "cause pain" to some
third party -- selling someone's daughter into slavery, killing someone who
performs useful duties on "the Sabbath", etc. [err, by that concept alone,
priests & ministers would be criminals -- see how this "twisting" works?]

Likewise, the "politico" jokes are cases where dubious judgment of the facts
have been taken to the extreme, and for every republican joke, there is
perhaps a corresponding democrat joke (or greenpiece joke, or
independent-party joke, or libertarian joke, or...)  Again, however, you the
reader of the joke "feel relieved" when the joke doesn't apply to you.  If,
however, you DO believe one or more of the items, then the joke appears
unfunny -- A particular example might be the one about one's children being
virgins, which I suppose applies to ALL parents regardless of political
persuasion.  When the day comes that you find your son or daughter has
passed on to the next level of "growing up", there is a certain internal
pain that "your baby isn't a baby anymore" [disclaimer: I don't have kids of
my own, and at my age that's becoming part of my own internal pain, but I
can certainly visualize how it would be for others...]

So, with ALL THAT ABOVE in mind, let me say that if someone posts something
that THEY feel is "humorous", yet you find them lacking in humor or taste,
take a moment to evaluate why you don't feel it is funny.  If it is because
of personal shame or if it brings back to mind a particularly painful
memory, take heart in the fact that there is usually something equally
appalling to the person who posted the "joke".  Likewise, if you're "rolling
in the aisles" over some of the items presented, consider for a moment that
what you are laughing at is "someone else's pain"...